Children's speech and language therapy service

The East Coast Community Healthcare (ECCH) Children’s Speech and Language Therapy (SaLT) service provides assessment, advice and direct therapy for children and young people aged 0-19, with speech, language and communication needs.

The service is commissioned and funded jointly by Norfolk County Council and Norwich, West, South and North Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).

ECCH staff work flexibly with children, parents and carers, schools and early years settings, to plan services that will achieve the best outcomes for your child.
Young people with complex speech, language and communication needs who need SaLT beyond the age of 19, can transition to adult speech and language therapy services in Year 14. These are provided by Norfolk County Council. For further information email information@norfolk.gov.uk

A member of the team will ring you back to discuss your query and give you advice.

If your child has reached their target, a member of the therapy team will discuss the case with you. They may give you further advice or recommend that your child’s name is added to the waiting list for a further appointment. A member of the clinical admin team will ring you to confirm when this has been done.

How long will my child have to wait for support?

This depends on your child’s particular needs. Children with swallowing difficulties get prioritised due to the potential health risks. Your therapist will tell you the expected waiting time at the assessment phase.

If appropriate, indirect support may be recommended. You will be given activities to do at home/school/nursery to help your child. By completing the activities your child will get the most benefit out of the support provided.

There is a very high demand for the service, resulting in a waiting list for some of the specialist provision.

How long will my child need therapy for?

When the Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) meets with your child, they will plan how many sessions it will take to meet your child's identified need. How these sessions are used is discussed with you and education staff to ensure the best outcomes for your child. The SLT will be continually assessing your child’s needs to inform future decisions.

Some children may only need to be seen once by a SLT for support and then discharged with advice, whilst other children may receive support over several years. When a programme of work has been completed, the SLT will talk with you about what happens next. If your therapist thinks that your child will require further support in the future, they will advise you how and when to request this. At this point your child may be “discharged”.

Children and young people with high needs / long-term support

If after assessment your child’s speech, language and communication needs require a higher level of input than ECCH is commissioned to provide, Norfolk County Council has an arrangement to buy additional services from ECCH.

If your child’s need is outside the core ECCH skill set, ECCH will advise us and we will source an appropriate provision.

In these circumstances, it is likely that your child’s identified needs and the provision identified to meet those needs, will be specified within an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan.

If we need to try an intervention to see if it is suited to your child, we can advise that an EHC plan review is scheduled after we have tried the intervention. We will then have a clearer idea about the best next steps for your child.